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This Article is Part 1 of a series of articles on the subject of customer and client satisfaction surveys.  Part 1 covers the early planning stages for customer satisfaction surveys.

The starting point for effective customer satisfaction surveys is gaining a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the study.  Typically, the process begins with a conference call between the client and the survey company to discuss the products/services provided by the client, type of users (B2B or B2C), demographics of the client’s customers, markets served (local, regional, national, or global), and nature of the sales process.  Essentially, the vendor asks the client to describe the organization’s business model.

Another early discussion topic is clarification of the overall goals of the client satisfaction survey.    For example, is it measurement of overall satisfaction, measurement of key aspects of customer relationship interactions, or is it a more narrow goal – - such as measurement of satisfaction with the purchasing process, product quality, or after-sale service?  Also, will it be an ongoing survey distributed over an extended time period (for example, after each transaction) or will it be monthly, semi-annual or annual measurement?  This information will help the survey company identify survey length, survey topics, and preliminary survey questions for the first draft of the survey instrument.  If the client has developed questions on its own, these can be forwarded to the vendor for review if the client is willing to do this in advance of a formal contract.

Another important consideration is identifying the most effective survey methodology based on the client’s customer demographics and project goals.  A final decision does not need to be made at this point in the process; however, viable options will need to be identified for cost purposes.  It is sometimes appropriate for a vendor to ask the client about project budget as this can impact the scope of the project.  Different methodologies – phone interviewing, mail surveys, and Internet survey research – each have their own nuances which can work better or worse (from cost, efficiency, and response rate perspectives) in different situations. 

Asking the client about the quality and availability of its customer records is critical.  If good quality records do not exist for the TARGETED survey respondents or are available in one medium only, this can severely impact the viability or cost of the project.  The viability of Internet survey research can be determined by asking the client to confirm the quantity of customer email addresses and how often those records are updated.  If the response is positive, many clients will favor using Internet survey research because of its cost savings and efficiency. 

The final piece of the puzzle even in the early stages of the survey process is to try to pin down desired data analysis and reporting deliverables.  The form of deliverable can impact the cost of the project and also define sample size requirements.  For example, where the client desires analyses among multiple segments of customers and/or customer interactions, the study may require additional responses to achieve valid response data within each segment. 

Another reporting consideration is whether the client has conducted similar surveys in the past and wants to use this information for internal benchmarking of results.  If so, the reporting process will often be more expensive to include relevant statistical comparisons between the different waves.

In summary, the early stages of customer satisfaction surveys is an information gathering process where the survey company needs to understand the business model of the client, its customer demographics, nature of the sales process, goals of the customer satisfaction survey, availability of customer records (including email addresses), and reporting requirements.  A skilled research supplier will know which questions to ask and then be able to process this information and provide a quote targeted to the needs of the client in terms of its budget and survey objectives.

Call center is a terrific job. Many young professionals work in call center because of higher chances of boosting their career to the maximum level. Customers are expanding their channel in contact in which call centers are on top of the list. It is a challenge to every contact center to integrate strategic planning in order to maintain its presence towards the global trend in this industry.

Working in call center is not only aiming to receive higher pay. There are dos and don’ts in order to set limitation to the workers. If you are one of the millions of people connected in customer service, you should know the guidelines to avoid committing violation. Call center companies always make sure to deliver efficient services to their clients worldwide as possible. Because call center is a promising industry, keeping the best employees and hiring more service representatives should always set part of expanding the business. Hiring the right people is very important. The call centers should provide ongoing training to the agents and employees; practice the transparency like communicating openly with the agents and managers, discovering the quality performance of the best people, investing to the state-of-the-art technology to increase customer satisfaction.

Any contact center should have a strong organization in achieving the long-term goal of the company. Making the call center dynamic and flexible can promote better output all the time. The call center management should always strengthen the relationship with the customer. Maintaining customer relationship is important above anything else.

There are many good things you can do to support the call center industry. Avoiding the don’ts in this industry can lessen the burden that may bring to the customers and the company you work for. The following are the don’ts that call center employees should do:

Avoid Tardiness

Time is precious. Never be late in your duty. Though you are one of the best agents in the company but with your constant tardiness will give you the honor to be recognized by your team leaders or supervisors. Also, you are not the asset of the company because call center is a fast paced regulated industry that time is important. Your tardiness can affect the operation of your company.

Don’t Slack Off

Do your job promptly. Slacking off the floor by letting other people do the job which is supposed to you is simply a bad impression to you not only as a person but to your job performance. Be productive always and serve as role model to your fellow agents. Show them the real you that you are happy with what you are doing. There are many call center agents who were terminated because of this bad impression despite several times of IR (incidental report) issued to them.

Avoid Obscene Behavior

Displaying your obscene behavior while you are inside your company’s premises is a big NO. When taking to the customer, talk with them with pleasure and with care. Never throw seducing words which sounds like you are doing phone sex to your customer. If caught, this may the end of your promising career in your in the call center. And worst, this may left bad wound in your previous job and to your co-workers.

Stop horsing around

Think of your responsibility as an employee of the company. While you are on duty, avoid playing around and horsing with other agents. Respect their privacy while they are on call and focusing on their job. This behavior can cause immediate violation because you are disturbing your co-workers instantly. Always put the fun in the right time. Implementing self-discipline is the best way to get rid of this disturbing behavior.

There are so many don’ts that you we need to implement. This can make the job easier if everybody is following the simple orders stated under the rules and regulations. It is important that the discipline must start on our own. Later on, other people who are new in the call center will learn the virtue that you showed. If you love your job then keep it.

The call center industry continues to give outstanding opportunity to everybody. It helps the economy prosper and lower the unemployment rate in the world.*

In real terms, lead generation is described to be the method of generating the potential consumer interest in any given services or products. On the other hand, it stands to be the important process that also generates inquiries relating to the services or products of a company. Considering the market of lead generation, there are basically two kinds of available leads including marketing and sales. Most call center companies offer these services so as to benefit both buyers and sellers.

The sales leads are usually generated on the foundation of the few essential criterions including the consideration of the age, income and others. The sales leads are basically resold to the multiple advertisers that are then pursued up through the phone calls by the sales individual. The sales leads are common in several industries including insurance, mortgage and the finance markets.

What does lead generation stands for?

As an essential call centre process, generating leads stand to be the main connecting link between the seller and the buyer. This procedure stands essential to break up all barriers of distance, time and that of attention. Additionally, this is one procedure where the nature of this process primarily depends on the diverse factors including the kind of service or product and it majorly influences upon the choices of the buyers. In such a process, the most probable prospects are especially educated and identified on the services and products.

The ways the lead generation function?

There are several companies which specialize upon in offering a number of qualified leads. A company usually develops partnerships with other websites or a website of its own in which they specially promote the products and the services of the company. Any consumer or customer if gets interested in the same will be filling up a web form or an online request form for the same.

The next following step will be to submit the firm to the organization. In this process, the information of the buyer will be matched and then verified with the services and products of the several companies in line to offer their services or products. All the matched leads will then be forwarded via the email to all the companies including the full contact details and information and the relevant information on purchasing.

Benefits of Call Center Lead Generation:

The process of lead generation is found to be very useful for both seller and buyer. The buyer will be able to put forward request information about what he or she is seeking for from the businesses offering services or products. On the other hand, the seller will have the opportunity to get its services and products market in a better way. For the seller it proves to be highly beneficial. All sellers will have a option to market their services or products so as to reach the customers who may be interested to find these services and products. It is more likely that such leads will be including higher rates of conversion as and when compared with that of the cold calling process. The other benefits are given in the list below:

1.It helps to recognize the real demand for the business services and products.

2.It helps to learn about the pricing of the services and the products on the basis of the generated leads.

3.It forms to be a great way to learn about the geographical regions for the services and products on the basis of the preferences and tastes of the prospective customers.